Drop box use soared in Democratic areas before Georgia voting law

[Calista241]

Source: AJC

Ballot drop boxes saw heavy usage in mostly Democratic metro Atlanta counties during their rollout last year, far more than in rural Republican areas of Georgia, election records show.

The state’s new voting law, passed by the Republican majority of the General Assembly, limits the availability of the boxes in future elections, especially in Democratic areas where voters relied on drop boxes.

About 56% of absentee voters in Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties returned their ballots in drop boxes before November’s election, according to ballot transfer forms.

...

In metro Atlanta’s four most populated counties, more than 305,000 out of 547,000 absentee voters deposited their ballots in drop boxes. By comparison, a sample of 11 smaller counties across Georgia found 32% of absentee voters used drop boxes, with the rest delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.

Read more: https://www.ajc.com/politics/drop-box-use-soared-in-democratic-areas-before-georgia-voting-law/N4ZTGHLWD5BRBOUKBHTUCFVOEU/

---

So of course the Georgia legislature banned ballot drop boxes in their election reform bill.

[Casady1]

1. this is the typical impact

we had a drop box 1 mile from my house and we used it. Now I would have to drive 10 miles each way. If you figure someone has to get a picture ID from the DMV they have to get a ride there. It would be at least 1/2 day. Then they would have to go out and get a copy of their ID( not everyone has a printer in their house). Now after completing that task it would take at least an hour to go to a dropbox. Can we say "Voter suppression".

[iluvtennis]

8. Exactly- nearly voter nullification for many. n/ t

[FakeNoose]

2. Don't they allow the collecting of ballots in some red states?

In other words, one person who has the time could volunteer to collect already sealed ballots from neighbors and friends, and deliver them all together to a designated drop box?

I thought that was being done to help out the handicapped and non-driving people who live in rural areas, and it was sponsored by the local Republican Parties. So if this activity is already permitted, then Democrats could arrange for their own ballot collections and deliveries. Am I right?

[Calista241]

3. 3rd party collection was also banned in the bill.

[ga_girl]

4. As a Gwinnett poll official

I can't vote on election day - at least that's what we're taught in class. Especially true when your voting precinct is not your work precinct. So that forces one into either voting in Advanced In Person (AIP) locations, or Absentee. In the November 2020 Presidential election, the eight AIP locations had wait times for over an hour for most of the three weeks of early voting. I opted to request an absentee ballot, which showed up in the mail in a reasonable time frame. Because Gwinnett is under a consent agreement to have all elections materials in both English and Spanish, the ballots were printed by a company that could handle the larger paper requirements that other Georgia counties did not have to meet.

That ballot was hand delivered to a drop box, on a Sunday, to the elections headquarters location. Easy peasy, even had to put a identifying number on the ballot application in addition to the then current signature requirement.

For the Senatorial run off in January I requested an absentee ballot just like in November. Instead of using a drop box, I went to the nearest AIP location, had the absentee cancelled, and voted on the Dominion machines. Being a nerd, I changed my selection for both positions at least one time, just to make sure that the selections were correct. I also looked at the generated ballot to make sure it had my correct selections before inserting into the scanner.

As far as I'm concerned the absentee voting process worked as intended, along with the drop boxes. Unfortunately the (R) legislature has seen fit to f*** with a working system. Bastages.

PS - I also worked two evening shifts in the hand count of the Presidential race. From the ballots I handled, both absentee and AIP, nearly all groupings either went significantly or slightly for Biden. Turns out both my work and voting precincts went (D) on the major races.

[PortTack]

5. With the SCOTUS ruling out of AZ, not sure the legal challenges to the GA law will be overturned

Regarding ballot drop boxes. Sad...very sad!

We have GOT to have some federal legislation...period!

[KPN]

9. I feel like it's already getting to be too late. 2022 elections are what, only 16 months away?

[C Moon]

6. I thought you were talking about the cloud service, DropBox. :D

I couldn't figure out how that worked with voting.

[AllaN01Bear]

7. hope these are being contested . i just take mine to the county elections office .

drop off in person.. the office is about 1 mile away.